This weekend I had one of those rare but perfect Saturdays where the day is completely your own and there is nothing on the schedule and you can just hang out. I actually can’t remember the last time this happened — it was so glorious. I ended up meeting a newish* friend for brunch, and we decided to do some shopping in the neighborhood. One of our stops was at MAC, the makeup store. I legit can’t remember the last time I went makeup shopping. Long enough that I had to admit to the saleslady that I don’t currently own a lipstick or an eyeshadow. I’ve been a blush and mascara kind of girl. So the salesgirl was doing my makeup to show me, you know, how lipstick works, and of course I couldn’t stop talking to my friend long enough for the poor lady to apply a simply Viva Glam II. It was driving her crazy.
And then the saleslady says to us: “Are you two, like, BFFs?”
My friend and I looked at each other, shared a silent laugh, and I declared a definitive “Yes.” I mean, we’re good friends. We haven’t known each other forever, and we each have people we see more often than each other, but for the purposes of this saleslady, the answer would surely be positive.
My friend laughed again and the saleslady said, “I thought so. I could totally tell.”
OMG! It’s so intense to ask two people that, don’t you think? What am I going to say “No, we’re FFs but not yet BFFs, but this lazy Saturday is certainly moving us in the right direction”? Or, “Eh, the jury’s still out”? Afterwards my friend and I agreed on the awkwardness of the question. What if it was our first date? What if one of us thought we were BFFs and the other didn’t? It’s like asking a guy and a girl if they are a couple. which basically never turns out well.
Luckily for m,e my friend and I are close enough that it wasn’t awkward, just silly. But it definitely reminded me of how far I’ve come on this search. Had the nice MAC saleslady said the same thing two years ago, I likely would have run home crying to Matt about how I have no friends. But Saturday, having that last-minute brunch and hang out day with a friend, I was reminded that I am continuing on the right path. BFFdom here I come!
Ever had one of those moments where a stranger asks a supposedly harmless question (“Oh, are you two dating?”) that feels totally intense and loaded when you try to answer? Ever had that moment with a friend?
* “Newish” is defined, for the purposes of this blog, as anyone I have met since starting this blog and my search for a local BFF. Since we’ve known each other for more than two years now, this specific friendship isn’t really that new, but it bears pointing out that we met though my quest.
MWF Seeking BFF 
Your blog posts are so refreshingly funny! Even without pictures, you manage to tell such an entertaining story. I really enjoy reading everything you share with us!
I’ve had that happen before with a boyfriend. I was asked if he was my brother. -.-” hahaha
I’m glad you dealt with it well. 🙂
I’ve had something similar happen…sort of. I was hanging out with my brother and got asked if that’s my boyfriend! It was so creepy but also hilarious.
Funny, my boyfriend and I were once asked if we were brother and sister! Also rather creepy.
This is unrelated to this post. But I was wondering if you had yet blogged about being friends with two people who eventually get together as a couple and leave you feeling awkward?
An English teacher once asked my best guy friend and me if we were dating (this was our senior year of high school). I had to try not to burst out laughing as I answered “No” – the idea was so ridiculous to me! (This man was one of my favorite teachers, but clearly he had jumped to the wrong conclusion here.)
I had that happen to me except the person asking was my friend’s friend/colleague. My friend and I hadn’t talked about it before or ever said we were best friends, so we were both silent for a second while we considered it. Luckily, I was in a good mood and recovered with, “Well she is a best friend to me, I don’t know about her,” shrugged, and just left it at that. People sometimes ask the weirdest, most personal questions in public.
So true!
How about the age old: “When are you due?”
“Uh…when I stop eating a bag of double-stuff Oreos and a pint of Cherry Garcia during tv time!”
LOL
Shannon
Dave Barry said it best: never assume that a woman is pregnant unless there is currently a baby emerging from her body.
One time I was getting my palm read by a psychic. I was with two guy friends. The psychic asked if one of them was my boyfriend…
Shouldn’t the psychic have known that?
I wouldn’t ask a direct question, but I am one of those idiots who puts my foot in it and then desperately tries to back track. ‘Yeah lets have a bbq, and you can bring your wife….er girl…..er partner….er friend….person….er baby’s mother……oh it’s not your kid?……erm’
It seems like friendship is becoming so rare, that people notice it when it appears. I have a group of friends that I get together with monthly for breakfast, and we get stares like you wouldn’t believe. We get some funny comments, too. I guess we don’t even know how the closeness of our friends until a stranger points it out.
I read this on Monday and I went out with a very good friend yesterday and we stopped by a phone store so she can compare prices and we spent an hour there laughing and talking to the sales guy and after a laughing fit we had, he just simply asked “Are you two best friends” and well we just looked at each other and it ended up a little weird. Because we hang out two or three times a week and are getting really close but we aren’t at that level. So we just laughed again and said we were getting there. And I thought it was just crazy that I went through here and read this and the same thing happened to me
Wow — that IS crazy! I’m glad to hear you had a similar reaction too… because it’s SO awkward!